


Wincing in the Night

by miserlou



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Emotional Trauma, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gay, Hurt/Comfort, Insomnia, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, More characters to be added as they appear - Freeform, Slow Burn, all survivors exist right now though, and humor too, but there will be intense moments, how else are they supposed to cope, its a lot less intense than it seems ok, they're there just not mentioned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 10:21:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15362394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miserlou/pseuds/miserlou
Summary: A realm where you're stuck in an endless cycle of life an death, being chased and murdered by ruthless killers, is quite a place to find romance.





	Wincing in the Night

**Author's Note:**

> hey y'all!   
> so this is my first fic of the fandom. it's such a small fandom, it deserves some fics!   
> i hope i can provide, enjoy!!

“Hey. Are you okay? What’s your name?” A pale woman with amber hair asked him, to which he couldn’t process due to just now being consciously aware of his surroundings.

 

He was not certain how got himself here, or where he was, but he was, at least, aware that he was surrounded by three other people at a campfire.

 

“Of course he’s not okay. He’s in the same place as us.” The reply, that was a juxtaposition to her soft, almost feeble voice, came from another woman with dark skin and hair who looked just as concerned.

 

Once the recently conscious man had a stable grasp on reality, his ability to converse finally came back to him. 

 

“I’m Jake.” He managed out, sitting up and running his hand through his hair before continuing. “What’s going on?” He asked, looking expectantly at the people in front of him.

 

There was a pause before anyone else spoke. The silence was worrying, and Jake knew it wouldn’t be good. The pure oddity of this ominous campsite gave him a foreboding feeling of dread. The three exchanged looks that did nothing to soothe the anxiety of this situation. Jake was used to being alone in the woods, but he never passed out and woke up by a campfire with three other people, so he figured he was entitled to his worry. The first to speak was a man with glasses and short black hair, he seemed twice as nervous as the other two, much more so than Jake would chose to show, but nevertheless, he spoke as solidly as he could. 

 

“We don’t.. really know why any of us are here. One by one we’ve just been kind of.. showing up.” The emotions in the man’s face were somewhat unreadable, probably because he didn’t want to make Jake freak out. His voice was soothing, no matter how nervous the tone was.

 

“There was a journal we found just before you showed up, though.” The soft-spoken woman interrupted his thoughts, and reached behind her to grab the worn out book, flipping through it.

 

“You know just as much as we do, Jake,” The braided-haired girl piped in, “Hopefully that journal will provide some answers. Anyways, sorry for not introducing ourselves. I’m Meg.” She then gestured to the girl with glasses and ponytail. “That’s Claudette.” 

 

“Funny how being put in a horrible situation makes us forget normal social courtesy.” The nervous man cut in, realizing that it probably sounded nerdy, “I’m Dwight.” He introduced as an attempt to backpedal. 

 

Jake gave the man a small smile and a pat on the back as a greeting. “Hey.” He said simply. He swore he saw a look flash through Dwight’s eyes, but he wasn’t able to place the emotion the other had, besides obvious anxiety. This was the most human interaction Jake had in quite a while, so he couldn’t be blamed for the naivety.

 

He was interrupted by his thoughts when Claudette returned to the rest of the group, her expression did not soothe his dread. 

 

“I think you guys should hear this… It’s not good..” She flipped through the pages before continuing, “So this journal was apparently written by a man named Benedict Baker who was trapped in, I’m presuming, these woods. He was constantly stalked by a creature called “the Entity” that trapped him in an endless loop of life and death, being chased by killers, former humans, manipulated into the Entity’s ‘servants’, in a way. Their goal is to hook us on meathooks until we die. Our goal is to fix five generators collectively to power the exits, in which we open and can escape.. and that’s it. It’s like a guide, to something we have to do.” 

 

“Are you serious?” Meg declares incredulously, taking the book from Claudette. “You can’t honestly tell me we’re stuck in the middle of nowhere in some sort of alternate reality where we have to play life or death with some paranormal fucking creature.” Meg’s furrowing of her eyebrows only confirm that Claudette was right in what she read in the journal. 

 

“Is- is it right..?” Dwight mutters out.

 

“Yeah. She’s right.” Meg states, her lips pursed into a hard line, her eyes empty, it seems, of emotions. 

 

Dwight lets out a nervous laugh, almost as if he were wishing this were a joke. “This has be some sort of-- stupid prank-- there’s just- there’s just no way this can be possible. We have to try and leave.” Dwight moves behind him and tries to walk through the trees outside the clearing but is quickly stopped by protruding black branches growing out of the ground, hindering him from moving forward. 

 

“What the fuck…” Meg curses quietly under her breath when realizes that the same branches also stop her from exiting the clearing. 

 

“So were stuck here..” Jake observed, with a faint voice and not much emotion to his face. 

 

“You don’t seem to be phased by this.” Meg turned to him suspiciously.

 

“I don’t come from an easy background.” Jake replied quickly. “I don’t have much to live for.” 

 

“You’re not the only one here with a rough life. You’d rather be here living in a simulated hell for however long this _thing_  has us in here?” Meg retorted, now slightly upset at the fact Jake was acting like everything was okay when everyone else was freaking out.

 

“Of course not. But I’ve been surviving in the woods for years now. The imminetity of danger or even death isn’t uncommon for me.”

 

“Which is why we need to stay close.” Dwight jumped in before Meg could refute anything Jake said. “Jake will be helpful. We need to look at this as a team, and prevent fighting as much as possible.” 

 

For the moments that Dwight stepped in, his anxious demeanor began to dissipate. He seemed to have an aura of leadership radiating off of him. Jake was entranced by this. The two locked eyes after Dwight finished speaking, Jake felt they shared the same understanding look.

 

Before anyone could say anything, the four of them simultaneously began to dissipate which could only confirm the Entity’s plan to force them to play this game.

  
  
  


________

  
  
  
  


A blonde woman stumbled into the campsite, a confused look on her face. “What is this place?” She asked in between fearful, panting breaths. 

 

“Here, come over here. Don’t worry, okay?” Claudette soothed, taking the the new girl by her shoulders and sitting her down. She was a natural southern belle, cowboy boots and rich blonde hair, and Claudette knew she was feeding her lies. This girl would worry a lot. 

 

“What am I doing here?” 

 

The dazed woman looked around at all the survivors, the amount of people increased by just over three times since the first match Dwight, Jake, Meg and Claudette were drawn into. 

 

The poor woman looked lost, and confused, an emotion reminiscent of Jake’s own when he first joined the survivors. However, it had been over two years since that day, and he was more than used to it by now. It’s not like he would know it had been two years. There’s no day in this reality, no way to tell if time in the real world is even passing. Death after death, person after person, he would watch them all suffer emotional and physical pain from being trapped in this realm. Even though he saw himself as more rooted than most of the other survivors, it never got any easier. Jake was tired of it all. He had patience, but having to watch person after person break under the sheer terror of their situation is just unbearable, which is exactly why Jake wasn’t paying any attention at all to the conversation before him.

 

“I’m Kate.. Denson.. I’m a folk singer.. and why.. am I here?” 

 

Claudette bit her lip, the sudden silence of survivors, only broken by the crackling fire, surrounded the clearing. All of the survivors knew what had to be said, but none of them wanted to say it. Foreboding silence found itself settled in this clearing quite often. 

 

“Well..” Claudette started the explanation, because no one else was going to. She continued to explain to Kate what she was here for. 

 

After the first wave of disbelief that ran through Kate, there was tears in her eyes. 

 

“I don’t want to die.” 

 

Even though she wouldn’t technically be dead, the survivors understood what she meant. She, along with everyone else, would have to know what it feels like to die at some point. Jake has died too many times to count these past two years, and he certainly didn’t want to see this girl go through the same emotional turmoil everyone else did. He hated the Entity for all the bullshit it makes everyone go through. For what? Why? No one knows. There was no answer, and it pissed Jake off. The only person who knows his thoughts and emotions over this is Dwight. 

 

Jake liked to think he tended to overlook Dwight at first, but he couldn’t ignore the fact that the man with glasses was captivating from the start. Of course these thoughts were always pushed aside as Jake and Dwight learned that they worked well together against the killers. This compatibility introduced a friendship between the two that grew to be very close. While they weren’t necessarily attached at the hip, they found themselves together most nights, talking about whatever they could. It was always easier talking with Dwight than the other survivors. Jake could be considered anti-social, so interacting with everyone else seemed like a chore, but being around Dwight was natural, and Jake, as a survivalist, was good with natural. 

 

Dwight caught Jake’s eye, he gave a sympathetic look through his glasses. Jake knew the sympathy wasn’t directed towards him, as they shared a knowing glance across the fire. They didn’t need to say anything to know they both felt the same compassion towards Kate’s situation. 

 

As Claudette continued to soothe her, now joined by the other survivors, Kate gave them a smile. Once she had finally calmed down from the initial shock, the survivors realized how optimistic the girl actually was.

 

“I’ve went through life with the same ideals of hope and happiness.. I don’t see why this would change now.” She muttered, and most of the others were confused, or impressed that this woman had as much courage as she did. Jake realized this was why the Entity brought her here. She has an endless supply of sanguine energy, but Jake only wished it were that easy for him to be jovial. 

 

After a while, Kate had gotten accustomed to the others, but others had trouble getting used to her. A few of them, like Ace and Nea, had issue with her positivity. They didn’t trust it, and tried to tell her that she’d regret it as soon as she gets pulled in a match. Some people went through a lot, so they had a right to be a tad bit wary of her confidence, Jake thought, but these were also the same people that liked picking fights within the group. Confrontation was never something Dwight tolerated, he had always been the person to hold them together as a team. He was great at keeping things together. But this time was not an exception. 

 

“We’re not doing this now.” Dwight stepped in, as if he had heard Jake’s thoughts as cue offstage during a play. “Don’t let out your own anger at this situation on others. Kate can cope however she wants. End of story. I don’t want to hear anymore of this.” He finished with a sigh that shut everyone up. “Anyways, where are you from Kate?” He asked, trying to immediately dissolve the tenseness around the group. 

 

Jake smiled a bit, just enough for him to realize, but not enough that those giving him a quick glance could notice. He always adored Dwight breaking out of his shell just long enough. He was like a turtle, he never really broke the shell, just came out of it when he needed to, then slunk back in. Jake could always appreciate Dwight’s leadership, he was a natural. He always came to Jake whenever everything was stressing him out, but he always found some way, despite his anxiety, to keep all thirteen of them as a team. Dwight was important, and Jake couldn’t deny that.

 

The survivors stayed up for a while, they all were engaged in conversation, with the new girl there was much more to talk about. But once the first person went to bed, many followed suit. Conversation drifted from topic to topic as it did every night, and Dwight found himself next to Jake by the fire. The last person to go to sleep was always Jake, if he could find it in himself to sleep. He struggled with falling asleep and staying asleep. Dwight was the only survivor to know this about him. With that, Dwight would stay up as long as he could with Jake. Most of the time Dwight would fall asleep first, but recently Jake would sometimes find himself falling asleep to Dwight rambling about whatever was going through his head. He could only attribute this decent amount of sleep to Dwight. Having a good friend in this horrific of a place probably helped.

 

When the rest of the survivors were asleep, Dwight turned to Jake, knowing he could have a full conversation with him now that he didn’t have to put up the silent demeanour in front of Dwight. 

 

“I wonder how Kate will be tomorrow. She’s one of the few of us that had a good life back in the real world.” 

 

Dwight looked into the fire, his his mind seeming distant in comparison to his physical state, which was considerably close to Jake. 

 

“I’m sure she’ll be alright. She has to be. The rest of us made it this far.” 

 

Jake mirrored Dwight’s stare into the fire as he replied.

 

“Maybe I should stop worrying so much about the others. I could be like you.”

 

Jake looked at Dwight in confusion, “What do you mean?” Jake furrowed his brows in confusion. “Wait. You think I have no empathy? Wow. Rude.” Jake asked sarcastically. 

 

“What I _meant_ ,” Dwight started, shooting Jake a playful glare and smile, “was that you don’t let things get to you. At least not like I do.”  

 

“That’s not always a bad thing. You wouldn’t be a decent leader without your empathy. I’m just desensitized to all this.” 

 

“I doubt you’re the only one. I feel like you have much more to you than you show.” 

 

Dwight and Jake locked eyes for a moment, and Jake saw that look. It was the same look Dwight gave him the night they first met. That same look that made Jake afraid of meeting eyes with Dwight. It had happened occasion after occasion where quick glances turned into a deep-seated emotion that Jake could only place as familiar. Nostalgia is a petrifying emotion that Jake didn’t want to visit again. So instead, he swallowed his desire to hold onto this emotion.

 

“I’ll think about it.” Jake said plainly with a small smile. 

 

“It’d be nice. The whole ‘I-don’t-give-a-fuck’ facade is getting old.” Dwight returned the smile.

 

“It’s less of a facade.. Probably more of a personality.” 

 

Dwight let out an airy laugh. “Well then, yeah, get more of that.” 

 

Jake couldn’t help but snicker at that. Dwight’s eyes lit up whenever he laughed too. It was times like these, when he could become lost in pointless banter, that made Jake almost forget he was fighting daily for his life and had no way out of it. Jake needed to continue the conversation, for his sanity. After a while of talking, they got on the topic of books, and Jake had a hard time not judging Dwight’s choices. 

 

“Romeo and Juliet is looked over a lot, but I feel it’s more important than people believe.”

 

Jake looked at Dwight incredulously, “Really? Shakespeare? I can’t even read that. You’re insane.” 

 

“There’s more messages than what it seems like on the surface. If you look at Shakespeare’s work you can find a lot of themes tackled in one play. Macbeth is another example. Sure, Romeo and Juliet may seem like a romance between two teenagers that are stupid and get themselves killed in the end, but there’s more to it than just that. There’s more issues being touched, like how societal expectations and inner turmoils have effects on these characters. No matter how ostentatious Shakespeare can be, his characters can represent any of us.” 

 

Jake could do nothing but stare at Dwight throughout this ‘monologue’ of sorts. The fact that Dwight is so passionate over Shakespeare should bother him, but it doesn’t. Nothing about Dwight could ever bother him, which is odd considering most other people bother him. It was because him and Dwight made such good friends. These ramblings are his natural state, and Jake admires it. He wished he could be that passionate about something, but he could never find himself getting into books, at all. He liked learning about them through Dwight. Maybe if Dwight were his tutor he wouldn’t have dropped out of school, not like any of that matters now, though. 

 

Jake’s thoughts tire him for once, he guesses because they’re not about himself or their eternity by this campfire. As Dwight stopped talking about Shakespeare, Jake leaned over on Dwight’s shoulder. It was better than sleeping on the hard ground, much more comfortable. Plus, Dwight is his friend, so it wasn’t weird in Jake’s mind. Jake felt Dwight tense up at this sudden movement, and he figured it was just because of his nerves. 

 

“Keep talking.” 

 

Was the last thing Jake muttered before Dwight obliged, speaking softly about some movies Jake never saw, like Ghostbusters, or how funny Bill Murray is. But before Jake could hear the rest of Dwight’s soothing speeches, his mind slipped off into subconsciousness, and Jake was comfortable.

 

**Author's Note:**

> so there's chapter one! i hope you enjoyed! i have some ideas for chapter two already, but in case you desperately want more, i hope i can provide! 
> 
> id love to hear from you guys! whether it be comments, or you can find me on twitter!  
> @philscorgi, yeah its a dan and phil account, this isn't the only fandom im in!! but feel free to dm me there! it can be fic related, or just to pop in and say hi! 
> 
> id love to hear what y'all might want from future chapters or plotlines!


End file.
